Nick Petrecki making his Sharks’ debut in tonight’s rookie game against Anaheim

For those of you who may be wondering which of this week’s three rookie games to try and catch, here’s a reason to go tonight: Defenseman Nick Petrecki will be skating for the Sharks against Anaheim.

Now I don’t want to be accused of over-hyping anybody. Not my job, not my style. But if pressed to say which player in rookie camp I’m most interested in seeing play, I’d pick Petrecki, the 28th player taken overall in the 2007 draft. Nothing against center Logan Couture, nothing against the three other blueline prospects (Derek Joslin, Mike Moore and Jason Demers) who seem poised to compete with Petrecki for two slots on the San Jose roster.

But I’ve seen Petrecki play when he was at Boston College. He seemed to dominate there and I’m curious to see if that shows up from the get-go this training camp, even if it’s against a team filled with other prospects who have yet to play 50 games at the professional level.

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I spent a few minutes at Sharks Ice this morning and talked briefly with the 6-foot-3, 225 pound Petrecki. He seemed ready for the challenge he faces over the next three weeks as the Sharks coaching staff decides if he can play at the NHL level at age 20, without the usual dues-paying stint in the minors.

By the way, Petrecki, who didn’t play in Monday night’s game, wasn’t sure if he’d be skating Wednesday night. Which makes tonight the one certain chance to watch the guy before the full squad turns up for training camp this weekend.

Couture, the 9th player taken overall in that 2007 draft, is scheduled to skate tonight, too.

Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m., game starts at 7.

*******I’m really tempted to respond in detail to all the back-and-forth about how often I write and don’t write. But I’ve explained it in the past and just last week, as somebody pointed, noted that coverage would be spotty for a few more days as the boss put a higher premium on me burning off vacation and comp time than covering rookie camp. He’s following his marching orders and frankly, newspaper economics being what they are, I didn’t argue with him.

I suppose I could try and straighten out the several misconceptions floating around out there. But the thing is, my trip to Sharks Ice this morning and my posting here have been done on my own time. And I don’t feel the need to donate any more of it today. For that, at least.

One last thing: Some of you may remember that I said last month that sometime before the start of training camp I wanted to come up with guidelines to elevate the discussion in here and reduce the hostility. Since then, I’m happy to say, the overall tone has been much improved. But that said, I’m still planning to have a list of do’s and don’ts to try and make sure things don’t revert to the way they used to be.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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